What About Felicity
by Wolf Fang Blade
Summary: After Athena finishes her story Gaige is struck by one thing, Felicity's fate. Now she plans to right this horrible betrayal by finding Felicity's core and restoring her personality. Accompanying Gaige on this treacherous mission is a new band of Vault Hunters.
1. Chapter 1

**Author notes: **First I wanted to start off with explaining that this concept has been in my head for awhile now, I was actually surpricsed that I couldn't find a story that had done this already, although if someone has please comment I would like to read that. What this means is that for that most part anything from the latest DLC or any information released about Borderlands 3 will liekly not be part of this story. I will incorporate somethings if I can fit them but the story has had at least a rough plan from before any of that was released. The story starts up after the end of the Pre Sequel. This is the first fanfiction that I have ever written so please bear with me. Please comment if anything is poorly written, I have read enough cringey fanfiction that I don't want it to end up like that.

**What About Felicity **

**Chapter 1.**

Gaige had listened as Athena retold her story, hearing the confession of every heinous act done in the name of what was believed to be the greater good. In this story she heard one thing that greatly disturbed her; I mean okay yes, there were a lot of disturbing things, the civilians Jack murdered, the threat to the moon, aliens; but this one event struck a real cord with Gaige. The murder of Felicity. That's what the wiping of her personality amounted to, was one of the worst things that Handsome Jack was responsible for. Given how she built Deathtrap from scratch, stuck with him, been protected by him, she has a soft spot for machines. She began thinking about the horror that had been done, and that she should do something about it.

After Athena had finished and everyone had gone their own ways, Gaige decided to start her plan. She first found and confronted Claptrap, as he had had a role in this tragedy. "Okay Claptrap we're going to have a little talk."

"W-w-wait what do you mean?" stuttered a nervous Claptrap.

"Athena told us everything about what all of you did on Elpis" Came the tense reply.

"O-oh w-w-well you see, I was just..." Claptrap started to fearfully stammer.

"How could you do that to her she trusted you and helped you but you betrayed her!" Gaige screamed.

Claptrap stopped shaking, turning his body side to side. It was a moment before he spoke again, clearly confused and unsure of how to continue. "Um are you talking about giving Jack control of Hyperion or what, I don't understand"

"Well I guess that and letting Jack kill the scientists and other stuff was bad sure, but I was talking about what you guys did to Felicity. It was a betrayal, she was part of your team and you just kill her because it was the easy way to go. How could you have thought you were heroes, heroes don't take the easy way, they take the right way!" Gaige let out with a huff of frustration.

The entire situation had gone in a direction that Claptrap had not expected. He had thought that upon finding out his role in helping Handsome Jack claim control of Hyperion the other Vault hunters would have been angry. To find the first confrontation to be about the destruction of Felicity was far from what he expected. All of the death that had occurred and it was the loss of an A.I that prompted this rage? Although in truth he should have expected it coming from a girl who was so obsessed with anything mechanical.

Gaige finally calmed herself taking several deep breaths before addressing Claptrap again.

"You may have done something horrible, but you're gonna make up for it."

"Wait, what do you mean make up for it?" Claptrap responded.

"We're going to find the original constructor and recover Felicity's mind."

Claptrap just stood there for a few moments, taking in what Gaige had just said. Realization slowly began to dawn on him as to the implications of that statement truly were.

"Wh-wh-what?! Do you even know what you're talking about?! Find the first Constructor, save Felicity. That's just insane, its not possible, and far too dangerous to even try. No way am I getting involved in this stuff again. Nu huh, you're on your own here."

Gaige just stopped and gave Claptrap a look, smiling a very menacing smile. Claptrap started to get nervous not at all liking how Gaige was staring at him. As the silence dragged on, Gaige leaned in closer to Claptrap until they were eye to eye. Just when Claptrap thought that he could take no more she finally began to speak.

"Oh you'll be helping me, otherwise I'll break you open and give you some new protocols that will really make you sorry."

Now Claptrap was afraid, because while Handsome Jack was an evil mass murdering sociopath, Gaige was unparalleled when it came to machines. The things that she could do to him or make him do boggled the mind and made him understand his position. He had no choice but to follow her and do everything he was told, the consequences didn't bear thinking about. It just wasn't fair, after everything Claptrap had survived, after everything he had done for the Vault Hunters(all be it most of that was getting in the way, but he opened doors damn it) he was now going to risk his life again because of what Jack made him do.

While Claptrap was lamenting his fate, Gaige began to plan her next move in saving Felicity. She would need to find the first constructor if she wanted to resurrect the AI. Of course that meant figuring out where Jack would possibly have kept it, if he had kept it at all. That thought struck her, what if Jack had destroyed the original Constructor? They had seen the multitude of constructors that Hyperion had been capable of producing, how many dozens of encounters had they been forced to endure? The new models were clearly more advanced than what Jack and his group of "vault hunters" had turned Felicity into, the fire power available, the loaders constructed are of a higher quality. It was possible that Jack decided that he no longer needed the first constructor and simply discarded it, being used for scrap. Shaking her head to dissipate this train of thought Gaige decided that this was not very likely. If Jack were smart he would want to keep the original around in case there was need of fixing some problem or bug. Only having copies would be risky, yes the original must have been kept somewhere, even if it hadn't been used or seen in some time.

Now that she had pushed aside her fears of Felicity's permanent destruction she needed to figure out where the constructor could possibly be. The most likely location would be Helios as that was the headquarters for the Hyperion operation on Pandora. Unfortunately Helios had recently crashed into Pandora, this now reopened the possibility of the first constructor being destroyed. Regardless the crash site would have to be the first place they started their search as even if the constructor was destroyed maybe enough survived for what she needed to do.

Gaige needed to get permission from Lilith to leave for an extended amount of time especially with everything that was happening what with Athena's revelations and the appearance of the Alien. Hopefully Lilith would allow it as Gaige was not pertinent to much of the preparations for now. Gaige would also need to recruit more help to complete this mission as just her and Claptrap would not really be enough if things got especially dangerous. The problem is who can she ask to help her with this? Lilith, Modecai, and Brick would all be too busy running the Crimson Raiders. She could always ask her fellow Vault Hunters to join her on this trip. Maya would see saving Felicity as a right thing to do with her kind heart. Axton could probably be convinced of participating by spinning some profit to it. Salvadore would have offered his help but he was off visiting his grandmother. Zero was who knows where and wouldn't be available for help. The less said of Krieg the better. Suddenly Gaige perked up as she thought of who she should approach to join them on their mission.

* * *

Hammerlock was sitting in Moxxi's bar enjoying a beverage and reading about some interesting creatures on other worlds. Reading about the exploits of others made him start to ruminate about his time on Pandora. He was supposed to be a great hunter and naturalist,categorizing exotic animals and exploring new places, but what had he done recently. All he'd been doing was asking the Vault Hunters to do everything; they collected Bullymong hair, they investigated the Skag/Rack Hybrids, defeated the crazy Jack fan at his hunting lodge, they had even been the ones who had killed the Stalker that had killed Taggart. Hammerlock was starting feel as if he were just some fraud. Everyone looked at him as if he were some great exciting man, he was the gentlemanly hunter on the savage brutal world. Even the Vault Hunters seemed to look up to him in awe, but why? They were the ones who saved all of Pandora. He is amazed at the things they have accomplished, their bravery and determination. He just wanted to be part of that. The trip to Aegrus and Hunter's Grotto was supposed to be an adventure with him and the Vault Hunters, but is that how it turned out? No, they dealt with Nakayama, they dealt with the Boraks and Scalions and Drifters, they did everything. He just stayed in the Lodge House giving them their missions telling them where to go, or making witty remarks. Did he actually take part in killing any of the Savages or the dangerous creatures of that continent? No! If only he could have some chance to prove he is a great hunter, that he can stand and fight and save the day. When could a chance like that ever come?

"Hammerlock!" Gaige yelled enthusiastically, breaking him from his thoughts. He looks to the entrance of the bar and sees Gaige running over to his table.

"Ah Gaige what can I do for you today." Hammerlock greeted in his gentlemanly way.

"Weeellll I was kind of hoping that you could help me with something."

Curious about what Gaige could want of him to have her acting like this, as if she were the teenage girls that she hated in school. Of course he worried that it had to do with her quite obvious crush on him. She was not a subtle person so she didn't hide what she was thinking.

She started hesitantly, clearly unsure if she should approach Hammerlock with whatever it was that brought her here.

"I am kinda planing a mission and I thought that you could maybe help me. I can't do this myself, so do you want to come."

"What do you mean you're going on a mission? You want me to go with you?"

Hammerlock was confused. How could Gaige be going on a mission without the other Vault Hunters? They were a team and did these things together. Why would she want him to go? He hasn't participated in any of the missions or battles before. Then he stopped questioning it, this was his chance, this was what he wanted. Hammerlock would be fighting evil, braving dangers and saving the world. He finally had an opportunity to show everyone that he was a gentleman adventurer and not some NPC quest giver in someone else's story.

"What exactly is it that you have in mind?"

Gaige then recounted Athena's story, in its entirety, something that Hammerlock could have done without, She then went on to explain her desire to being Felicity back, and that was why she needed a team. It was a noble reason he supposed, to want to save an innocent who had herself helped to save lives on Elpis. It wasn't saving the planet from a monolithic corporation, but how many missions did the Vault Hunter's go on that was as simple as collecting Skag meat. This was a quest in search of the soul of one that was lost, most importantly it was something.

"If you are determined to take on this task then I will join you." Hammerlock told Gaige.

"Yeeeeeesss! We're really on our way to a real group. We still need to get a few more people, three's not enough to get this done"

"Three? Who else have you already asked to join?"

"Oh well, Claptrap is coming of course."

"What. Claptrap is also on this mission. Uh I think perhaps I have some other matters I must attend to."

"Oh stop, Claptrap's not that bad. He helped stop Jack, and everyone is always so mean to him just because sometimes he doesn't know when to stop talking. But maybe if people would just spend with him and talk to him he wouldn't be so starved to attention to go so far. We couldn't even get anyone else to come to his party, I mean he got pizza and everything, it was sad. Besides other than Athena he was the only one who was part of the Jack's team who can help us. Well unless you want to wait for your sister to get here."

That got Hammerlock's attention. As annoying a Claptrap could be, spending time in his company was preferable to that of his sister. Her complete arrogance and contempt of everyone else made her unbearable to be around. "Yes well I suppose Claptrap is not the worst possible companion"

"We do still need a few more people, but I just don't know who to ask" Gaige sighed at their dilemma. The inclusion of Claptrap to the group was obvious due to his connection to the death of Felicity and needing his knowledge. Her crush on Hammerlock was really the deciding factor in asking him to join her mission, he did have useful skills which totally contributed to her decision. But who else can she ask? Sure there are tons of former soldiers all around sanctuary, I mean they are mostly Crimson Raiders. But lest be honest, they're pretty much all mooks. I mean they wouldn't put up any more of a fight than the hundreds of bandits they the Vault Hunters had slaughtered in their time on Pandora. There are really only a few people that the Vault Hunters had net who can hold there own in this type of fight, but how was Gaige going to decide who to ask, who had the best skills needed for this recovery mission.

"I'm in." Came a sultry voice from behind.

Both Gaige and Hammerlock looked up and saw Moxxi standing before them. Moxxi had always been beautiful and stunning, everyone on Pandora knew who she was and desired her. Now while still beautiful, she was clearly not at her best, her appearance being disheveled, her makeup applied messily, her clothes not quite orderly. She had taken Scooter's death very hard, feeling like she should have been able to do something. Of course she was no stranger to death being a Pandora native, but this was her son. She had become irate and short with everyone around her, especially if they were trying to give her condolences.

"I've been listening to your conversation and I'm joining you."

Hammerlock and Gaige looked at each other unsure if Moxxi participating would be a good idea given her state of mind right now. Would she really be focused on the mission or did she just want to hurt something? Well let's be serious its Moxxi she wants to hurt something. But that was the problem, under normal circumstances she would be a great asset to the team. She was ruthless, good with a gun, and a great engineer.

Hammerlock started to speak "Are you sure that you should be taking part in anything so demanding right now after what happened with..."

"Stop. I don't need to be coddled, I was born on Pandora. My own family would gladly kill me and Ellie. I've seen plenty of death, Scooter's isn't going to break me. What I need is to do something, and fixing something done by Jack could be that thing. If I get to kill Hyperion in the process, the better."

Moxxi had latched onto the fact that it was while on a mission against Hyperion that Scooter died. No Hyperion personal were actually responsible for his death, as it had been a malfunction of the ship, but she needed something to target and everyone hated Hyperion.

"It would be a good idea to have another engineer around to help fix Felicity when we find her." Gaige added with excitement.

"Yes well I suppose having another experienced individual on this mission would be favorable." Was Hammerlock's response

"Experienced? Are you calling me old, sugar?"

"What?! No er um..."

"Look we need to get started on our mission. I don't know who else we should recruit but there is something that I need to do before we leave."

* * *

The train came to a stop at the Lynchwood station. Four figures departed. The exuberant Gaige, busting with excitement and jumping around to get going. Next comes Claptrap, nervous and hesitant about leaving the safety of the train. Hammerlock steps onto the station with an air of refined dignity. Last came Mad Moxxi, making as much of a production as she could, drawing every eye to her.

Why had they come to Lynchwood in the first place? Their mission involved Hyperion technology and the fate of Felicity, they should be looking at Helios or on Elpis. Well the reason for the detour was personal.

"Since all the other guys are gone for a while I'm supposed to be the one taking care of feeding Dukino. He's all by himself and needs us to take care of him."

"Wait we're here for that pet Skag you and the other Vault Hunters adopted?" Moxxi interjected.

"Yep, he's just a poor little baby and he needs us."

"He's a Skag. They're incredibly hard to kill, and can survive on almost anything."

"No, Dukino's really nice and can't take care of himself. I mean his own mother tired to kill him! That's messed up."

Now one would think that even with Jack gone that just walking into Lynchwood would be a dangerous proposition even for a group as tough as this. Normally it would have been crawling with bandits wanting a piece of the Vault Hunters. After Jack was defeated, Salvadore came back to town and took over the position of Sheriff of Lynchwood, effectively he ran the whole town because who was going to argue with Sal. The end result was that Lynchwood was one of the safest towns on Pandora. Most of the bandits still hung around, but they just knew better than to make trouble, usually there were always some brawls and giant gun battles, but this was Pandora wouldn't be fun otherwise.

It was a short walk from the train station to Dukino's cavern. They actually met some bandits who decided it was a good idea to attack some Vault Hunters, sadly no good loot. As they came into the cave where Dukino was he ran out to greet Gaige. She happily started to pet him and shower him with affection as if he were a puppy and not one of the most dangerous creatures on Pandora.

"Aw whose a good boy? Yes you are, yes you are."

"Do you realize how odd it is to have a Skag as a pet" Came from Hammerlock.

"Tina has a pet Skag, and so did Crazy Earl."

"That does not help your case about not being weird."

Gaige spent a little bit of time playing with Dukino, making sure he wasn't feeling neglected being so far from most of the Vault Hunters. Once Gaige was done with her fun she set upon getting Dukino a babysitter. Looking at some of the bandits still hanging around the cave she addressed them.

"Hey, you morons better keep an eye on Dukino while I'm gone on my awesome mission."

"What, why would we do anything a Vault Hunter said"

"Because if you don't then you can explain why to Deathtrap."

The local bandits suddenly decided that babysitting a young Skag would not be such a bad idea after all.

As the group wandered through downtown Lynchwood they discussed filling the rest of their vault hunting team.

"Well I think we need two more members for our group before we really get started on our mission."

"Why six members?" asked Hammerlock.

"Don't know, seems like the right amount."

Then a man came up to the group, at first glance it seemed to be a Nomad but it was the Deputy. The Vault Hunters were glad that they had avoided killing him in their confrontation with Nisha, he was a good guy just trying to keep people safe in a bad situation. While Sal was doing a good job as Sheriff, no one dared attack Lynchwood, it was the Deputy who was making sure to run the day to day of the town. He greeted the group of would be adventurers.

"Hey what are you guys doing out here?"

"Oh just had to make sure Dukino would be taken care of.

"Why'd you need to do that?"

"Well we're going on a mission."

"Something to do with the Crimson Raiders?"

"No this isn't exactly a Vault Hunter thing, although it is fixing something that some Vault Hunters did." Gaige said giving Claptrap a pointed look.

"Ah well I suppose I should wish you good luck on your little mission."

"Actually I was thinking that we needed a couple more people for the team, so why don't you join."

"Wait what, I am just a normal guy I don't want any part of this Vault Hunter stuff."

"No it'll be great, besides you need to get out and see more than just Lynchwood."

"But I'm not trained to be an adventurer."

"Trained? I'm a teenage girl who ran away from home with a killer robot. We just figure it out as we go along. Besides you're a deputy and you held your own pretty well in that fight we had with Nisha."

"But I need to stay and take care of Lynchwood, make sure the people are safe."

"No it'll be fine, so just come on."

Gaige grabs the resistant Deputy and drags him along with the group. He continues protesting but his words are ignored. The rest of the group just goes along with Gaige's whims as they know that it won't do any good to say anything she will just go and do what she wants, Claptrap is sympathetic to his plight.

Now that Gaige had dealt with caring for Dukino and added another member to their group, the team of Vault Hunters started to depart from the town of Lynchwood. They were just about to get on the train when someone cried out to them, very loudly.

"HEY YOU BUNCH A BADASSES! WHATCHA THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

Gaige sighed "Torgue what are you doing here?"

"I heard that you were making a team to go on AN ADVENTURE!"

"Uh well yeah but how did you..."

"Oh and is looks like you're filling it mostly with NPCs making for a unique story. Which is Radical, BWEEDLELELELE.

"Okay so we'll just get going..."

"WAIT! I wanna join you guys. I'm sick of just giving people awesome missions and talking about how all the Vault Hunters are a bunch of Badasses. I want to get out there and participate in the AWSOMENESS!"

"Are your sure, I mean you're busy with your company.."

"No, I was fired remember, all I have is time now!"

"Well do you have any skills that would be useful."

"WHAT?! OF COURSE I DO! I CAN WRESTLE SHARKS AND SKAGS AND I INVENTED TORGUE GUNS. I AM A BONAFIDE BADASS."

Gaige was thinking about having Torgue join the Group. His personality was a bit extreme but so was hers if she was honest. Overall he would be an asset. He invented a great number of powerful weapons and he has lived in dangerous conditions similar to Pandora. There was not really any reason to not have Torgue join the team.

"Yeah sure Torgue come on we're going to head back to Sanctuary and make sure we have any equipment we need then we're getting started."

"AWESOME! BWEEDLELELELELEL."

* * *

The group of six met in Moxxi's bar gathering up all of the equipment that they believe they will need for the mission that is before them. Checking their weapons, ammo, health kits, and mods to ensure that they have whatever they need. Hammerlock was inspecting his rifles, making sure they were clean and working, checking scopes calibrating sights. Moxxi gathering mostly submachine guns, with of course elemental effects, and preparing items for healing. The Deputy was reluctantly getting his guns together, a mixture of shotguns and pistols. Claptrap scurrying around panicking about the imminent danger they were about to be in. Torgue was just playing air guitar and spouting about how bad ass this mission was going to be. Gaige meanwhile was gathering up what she felt she would most need for the mission. Besides of course many guns and a lot of ammo, she was bringing her tools and other supplies that would be best suited to help with saving Felicity when they did find her.

It looked like everyone was ready so Gaige started to explain their plan so far.

"The first place we should look is the remains of Helios. That is here on Pandora so its the easiest to get to and may have some intact computer system for us to access."

"Helios crashed into Pandora, do you really think there will be anything usable left in that ruble."

"Well we don't have much else to go off of so this is really the best plan we have at the moment. If there is nothing there then we will have to deal with it when it happens but unless anyone has any other ideas..."

"I guess we're off to the remains of Helios."

* * *

The vehicles pulled to a stop just outside the crashed remains of Helios. The team all disembarked and loosely gathered around. Gaige surveyed the mass of wreckage unsure of where they should even start. It was one thing to know that Helios had crashed and was in pieces, but seeing it up close made her begin to doubt that there would be anything to possibly recover from the remains. The rest of the ream looked equally daunted by the task before them.

"So where should we start?"

"Well I guess we just look around and hope to stumble on something."

"We should be on the look for any computer consoles there is a chance that they could contain information that we need."

With that the group split up and started to rummage through the various scraps around them. Of course the majority of everything was beyond any kind of salvaging. Gaige was starting to give up hope of finding anything when suddenly she noticed a laser on her chest. She looked around not seeing anyone, not knowing what else to do she called out to the rest of the team.

"Hey it looks like we're not alone!"

Claptrap was the first to reach Gaige. When he was withing sight he questioned her. "What's going on?"

"Look at my chest."

Seeing the red dot Claptrap stated to panic. "Ah you're targeted! I gotta get outta here!"

Claptrap made to run but them noticed he also had a red dot aimed on his body. The rest of the team came up and each of them also got a laser dot aimed on them.

"Well this looks like a bit of a situation we've gotten into."

"Okay who's ambushing us?"

"THIS IS A TOTALLY NOT RADICAL METHOD OF ATTACK! JUST COME OUT AND FIGHT!"

They waited for a moment before a voice came out from the debris around them.

"Okay, you're surrounded so just put your guns down and your hands up."

There was a brief moment of silence then the vault hunters(with the exception of the Deputy and Claptrap) just burst into laughter.

"Oh yeah we better give up cause they got the jump on us. Ha ha ha ha ha"

"Whatever will we do with guns pointed at us"

"Ha Ha Ha Ha"

"Okay let's just shoot our way out of here."

"Wait, wait don't shoot! We're not armed just stop!" came the panicked cries of the voice that had called for their surrender. A figure came out of hiding with his hands raised, he was short and looked much like a typical bandit. He was shirtless and had a mask on, almost looking like something between a Psycho and a Midget.

"Look there is no need for violence we can't hurt you."

"Even if you had been a gang of armed bandits, you wouldn't have had much of a chance of hurting us."

"A little arrogant aren't you."

"We're Vault Hunters, this is what we do." Was Gaige's reply.

"Hey now Vault Hunters die all the time, it's dangerous."

"Yeah well not us we're the best"

The half psycho just stood there to a moment tilting his head clearly thinking she was insane. Of course this being Gaige he was completely correct.

Gaige then questioned the apparent bandit leader again. "Your awfully talkative for a Psycho aren't you?"

"What? Oh no I'm not a Pyscho, just a second."

The bandit then removed his mask revealing a face that very much did not match what one would expect to find on the Bandit scum of Pandora. He had short brown hair and a beard. He also looked rather nerdy to be honest, of course his muscled physique seemed to ruin that image, creating a weird juxdiposition.

"Okay so who are all of you? You're definitely not bandits. So what are you doing here?"

"We're the Children of Helios."

"What?"

"We're the survivors of the crash of Helios."

"Wait that means all of you worked for Hyperion!"

The Vault Hunter's tensed up and started to level their weapons.

"Whoa, just wait a second. We were just the corporate support people okay. We were in accounting, purchasing, marketing, receiving. You know stuff like that. We didn't take part in what Jack did. We were victims too. Hyperion fostered a dog eat dog environment. People literally killed each other for advancement. You towed the line or you were dead. Helios crashing was the best thing for all of us. We were finally free from Hyperion, from the corporate grind. We're living our lives how we want to now."

The Vault Hunters stood there taking in the speech given by Vaughn. Looking around they could see that these were not the people that had caused such havoc on Pandora. The sight was rather pathetic really, just a bunch of former cubicle dwellers scraping by in the harshness of Pandora. They started to lower their weapons, except for one.

"They're Hyperion no matter what they say. I should kill them all."

"Moxxi just wait a second."

"No! How can you just let them go. After everything they've done. Everyone they've..."

"Stop! I know you've been hurting after Scooter died, but killing these people won't make you feel better."

"Wait. You guys knew Scooter?"

"He was my son! Don't say his name! Hyperion is the reason he's gone."

"I'm sorry, it's just that I knew him."

"What do you mean? How could you know Scooter?"

"I was part of the group he helped get onto Helios."

"Wait, you're one of those Vault Hunters?"

"Well, yeah. Me, Rhys, Fiona, Sasha, Athena, Loaderbot, hey even Claptrap was there at the final Battle."

The group stopped and looked at Claptrap, who was trying to look casual and failing horribly.

"You were part of another group of Vault Hunters?"

"Ah, oh yeah um. It was just the one time. I needed to make some money and was working as a mercenary you know. They had the money so boom, instant Vault Hunter."

"Yeah we greatly overpaid on that one."

The atmosphere lightened a bit as everyone took in the exchange. But just as quickly it became just as tense.

"You were with those Vault Hunters that took Scooter into Space to Helios? The reason Scooter is dead?!"

The light mood left immediately as everyone realized the situation just got a lot worse. Moxxi was angry before, but now she was completely consumed by her rage. The rest of the team realized that things were quickly going to spiral out of control. Gaige decided that she needed to intervene before Moxxi killed this guy, who they might need.

"Moxxi just stop." Gaige said.

"No! You don't get it, Scooter is dead because he and his friends wanted to play Vault hunter!" screamed Moxxi.

"It wasn't his fault Moxxi. Scooter chose to help them. He wanted to help them. They came to him because they needed someone who could do what he did. You know that all of us know the risks we take just by living here on Pandora. Scooter was not some civilian that needed protection, he could handle himself, he died because the world sucks and sometimes the people we care about die. You've lived on Pandora your whole life, you know this just happens."

Moxxi stood there, not saying anything, but looking just as angry and ready to kill their new friend? Finally Moxxi let her gun drop to her side. "Fine I won't do anything, for now." Moxxi said.

The situation had been resolved at least for a little while. The group stood around not entirely sure of how to move on after the very tense situation. Finally Gaige decided to move things along. "Okay we need to just get to why we came here in the first place."

"Oh, there was something you wanted?"

"We came here because we were looking for something that might have been held on Helios."

"Well as you can see not much has survived the fall."

Yes but it's possible that what we're looking for could still be around. What we need is the first Constructor that Jack built when he was on Elpis. The one he used to build the army he fought Dahl with."

"The first Constructor? Jack made a lot of updates and improvements to the Constructors, what possible use could you have for the first one?"

"It's not the body of the Constructor we need, what we want is the mind that Jack forced into it. The AI named Felicity that he maimed for his own purposes." Gaige began to growl out her statements as she grew more angry as she remembered the true purpose of their adventure. The party was quiet as they witnessed her rage.

"I uh yes what we need is the AI that was used as the basis for all the Constructors. He might have altered the programming and the hardware but he would have had to keep the original to make his changes to. Jack would have been smart enough to know it would be too risky to not have an unchanged template to work on. Copies of copies would reduce the effectiveness of his system."

"Well I wouldn't know anything about that I was just an accountant. Oh uh I'm Vaughn by the way. Well I guess we could ask Randy, he was in charge of archives and storage of old projects. So he would probably know where it is if Hyperion still had it at the time Helios fell."

The group followed Vaughn as he led them deeper into the wreckage of Helios. They passed by the various members of the Children of Helios, a little unnerved by the vacant stares directed at them. They arrived at a section of the ruins that seemed to be used for living. Vaughn then motioned towards a certain individual who was seated by a fire.

"This is Randy since he was in charge of storage he might know what you're looking for. Hey Randy these guys are looking for something that Hyperion might have had, could you help them out"

"Oh uh well I guess I could see if I could do something, but as you can see everything went down with Helios."

"What we're looking for might have survived this crash. We want the original Constructor."

"The first Constructor? Not sure why you'd be interested in that. Jack made a number of improvements on the model from the beginning. The latest Constructors that were being used by the end were more powerful and efficient then the first one."

"What we care about is the system in the data core of the constructor. We want Felicity."

"The Primary system of the Constructor? Well okay let me check my files. When we evacuated during the Fall I had my computer with me. Thought we would just be getting back to work later, who knew? Okay let's see here...ah well this is a problem."

"What you don't have the information?"

"No, well not now but I did. The information for this was on a special data core that did survive the Fall, but I don't have it anymore."

"What happened to it."

"It was taken when the others left."

Vaughn reacted to that, grimacing and stepping back.

"Vaughn what is he talking about? What others does he mean?"

"Ah well not everybody who survived the Fall became part of the Children of Helios. We're mostly the support staff, you know the office workers. The other more action involved decided to try and make it as bandits."

"What?! Who are these guys?"

"Well you know the security forces, the combat engineers, some of the scientists and a lot of the top executives who were really cutthroat and are perfectly fine with killing innocent people."

"Oh its like what happened when Atlas fell. The former soldiers all became bandits and raiders."

"Okay so we just go to their camp, kill them and take the data core."

"It won't be that simple. The soldiers who left didn't stay together. There are three different groups and I don't know which one has the core. If you want to find it you'll have to go to each camp to search."

"Of course we do. Who wants to bet that the core will be in the last camp we search no matter what?"

Everybody raised their hands.

"Well I guess we better get to it. Vaughn send the locations of these Hyperion bandits to our echo devices."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author** **notes: **Finally a new chapter. I am not fully happy with this chapter but I felt I needed to post something. Sorry about the wait but I have been having trouble with writer's block, and have not dealt with it well. Whenever I would write something down I would find it just wrong and then give up and not even look at the story for days. I t took me far too long to get this up and I will make sure to post a new chapter without as much of a delay. I don't want to be one of the authors that posts one chapter and you never see anything again. I do hope I did a good job of getting the Vault Hunters into the action and the next few chapters with focus more on the battles that you experience getting to an objective and some of the ways I end up having to play. There is a little nod to a Youtuber I have watched, it's not big just a little funny thing I thought worked in well.

* * *

**Chapter 2.**

Three outrunners were speeding across the Pandoran landscape, taking the Vault Hunters to their first destination. After getting the information they needed from Vaughn, Gaige and the others had headed to the nearest Catch A Ride and got their vehicles. The Vault Hunters paired off Gaige and Moxxi in an Outrunner, Torgue and Hammerlock, and finally the most reluctant Vault Hunter Deputy and Claptrap together.

"Okay everyone the first gang of Hyperion bandits we're going after are called the Hyperforcers, they are headquartered in the Dust. The leader is Commander Radvik. These guys are the security forces of Hyperion, they are going to be the human soldiers. So we won't have to worry about too many loaders." Gagie told the team.

"So what's the plan here? How are going to find out if these guys have what we're looking for?" Questioned Deputy.

"Well the plan is the same as always, we kill all of the bandits then loot what's left. The data core will have to be around somewhere, and if its not then we just move on to the next group."

The rest of the group agreed that this made perfect sense. Loot and Murder is basically the pass time of Pandora. It's what worked in the past so why change now.

"Wouldn't it be safer to scout out the locations and gather intelligence first? That way we can find out which camp actually has what we're looking for and not risk our lives needlessly attacking bandits who don't have it." questioned the Deputy.

"..." The rest of the group just stared at Deputy in confusion.

"You mean don't fight literally every bandit in between us and our objective?"

"You're not from Pandora are you?"

"AVOIDING FIGHTS?! TOTALLY NOT RADICAL!"

"Yeah we'll just stick to what works."

The Deputy hung his head in despair. It looked like common sense and logic would not be heard this day.

"It's okay, I want to avoid fights too, but being a Vault Hunter is pretty much the opposite of that. I should know I been working with these guys from the beginning." Claptrap sympathized.

"Well if nobody else has any ridiculous suggestions we're almost at the bandit camp. So everybody get ready" Gaige relayed to the team.

The three Outrunners pull up to a stop outside the entrance to the pass where the Hyperion bandits have made their base. The Vault Hunters get out of their vehicles and start to walk towards the entrance to the bandit base. In front of the various rocks and crude metal barriers of the entrance there was a sign painted on scrap metal in all cap proclaiming this was the home of the HYPERFOCERS.

"Why is it that the Bandits always seem to put up signs telling you where they are? You'd think that they'd want to be hidden, especially with how often the Vault Hunters go after them." Questioned Hammerlock.

"Huh I guess when you become a bandit you have to be an idiot."

"Okay guys let's get in there, kick some bandit butt and hopefully the data core will be here."

* * *

The group made their way past the entrance and started walking up the path to the bandit camp. It wasn't long of course before they encountered the former Hyperion security staff turned bandits. There were some just lounging around the pathway as bandits are apparently won't to do. Being the sniper of the group Hammerlock decided to take the first shot. Before the bandits were even aware of the Vault Hunter's approach one of the soldiers dressed in a rough version of the Hyperion uniform had his head blown off. This set off the rest of the bandits and the battle started.

"YEAH LET'S KICK SOME ASS!"

The Vault Hunters started to engage bandits at will and well for the bandits it was chaos, for the Vault Hunters it was fun. Torgue ran up blasting away with one of his Torgue assault rifles, turning any bandits he hit into pieces of gore. Moxxi was right behind him laying down bursts of her submachine gun, setting any bandit in her way on fire. Other unlucky bandits found themselves dealing with the crazy teen aged Mechromancer as she sprayed wildly with her submachine gun killing enemies all around her, sometimes even those she was aiming at. The Deputy was also right up in the action taking bandits with his powerful Jakobs shotgun. Even Claptrap was was pulling his weight picking off bandits with a Dahl assault rifle moving quickly into the battle. Hammerlock supported the rest of the team with precision shots taking out anyone who threatened the Vault Hunters blind spots.

The initial skirmish didn't last long. The rag tag bunch of bandits were no match for Vault Hunters, former Hyperion soldiers or not. As they regrouped the Vault Hunters first of course started to loot the corpses for anything good.

"Well this is off to a good start." Stated Hammerlock

"Wooo, this is what Vault Hunters do! Kick some bandit butt!" Was Torgue's enthusiastic reply.

"Okay that was just the few guys in the front who weren't even paying attention. Let's no get ahead of ourselves. This is still a dangerous mission" Came from Deputy.

"Yeah yeah. Don't be a buzzkill. Well is everyone set to move on?" Gaige decided to get things going.

The rest of the group was collecting ammo and healing up where necessary. They were also sorting through the various weapon that the Bandits had been using hoping to find some better guns.

"Hey this guy had a blue assault rifle! SWEET!"

"Well that's better than anything else I see around here. Just some whites and a few greens. Nothing better than what I've already got."

"Yes I appear to have the same. Pity there is such a poor turnout of loot."

With the Vault Hunters lamenting their poor loot turnout, except for Torgue, they set off up the trail deeper into the bandit base.

The group made it up the path to gathering of various structures were the members of the Hyperforcers were living. Some soldiers were just sitting around talking or eating or other leisure stuff. Others were patrolling keeping watch. There were those doing maintenance on equipment. All in all doing whatever people normally do in their home.

"Why is it no matter how much of a fire fight we have down the path, bandits never seem to communicate up the line. I mean what's even the point of having lookouts if you're going to ignore them getting in a fight."

"Well maybe we killed those guys so fast that they weren't able to send out a distress call or something."

"Yeah, it just seem strange is all, it's always like this."

"Okay whatever we should just get back to it and clear these guys out so we can find out if they have what we're looking for."

With that the Vault Hunters started forward to engage the second group of bandits. Again Hammerlock was the one to get first blood, the advantage of being the sniper of the group. A Hyperion bandit who was crouched down and working on a generator suddenly went down with a spray of blood and brains. The rest of the bandits immediately reacted to this, bursting into action. Say what you will about bandits being dumb, when it came to a fight they were up in action quick. All of the bandits who had been idle picked up weapons and rushed out to meet the attacking Vault Hunters.

Hammerlock continued to lay down precise sniper fire on the hordes of bandit defenders. He was in his element treating the bandits as if they were game to be hunted. Picking targets and squeezing off shots Hammerlock got head shot after head shot. Bandits were dropping before they even knew they were in danger. The rest of the Vault Hunters had not yet had a chance to engage their opponents and Hammerlock had already rack up a kill count of ten. Yes, this is what Hammerlock had been craving. To be out in the action, to be an actor, a player not some bystander. A bandit armed with a submachine gun was running out of cover down the pathway towards the rest of the Vault Hunters attacking. Hammerlock lined up his cross hairs and took the shot along with the bandit's head.

Moxxi was the first of the rest of the Vault Hunters to make contact with the bandits. She rushed ahead, not the calm and collected leader of death battles, but an angry savage Hodunk. Normally Moxxi is in complete control she didn't typically get her hands dirty participating in fights and killing, that she left to Vault Hunters and random bandits. Now she was the one killing bandits and doing so in a brutal fashion. The sophisticated air that Moxxi gave off could cause people to forget that she is a native of Pandora and a member of the Hodunk family. When is comes down to it Moxxi knows how to kill and is very good at it. Right now she has a lot of anger and grief to vent. She blamed a certain group of sort of Vault Hunters who in her mind put her son in danger, but she also had blame to go around to Hyperion. Without Hyperion's actions Scooter would never have gotten dragged into the conflict Vaughn and his friends were a part of. She had been talked out of taking her anger out on Vaughn but she still wanted someone to pay. When she was in range she started dealing with every former Hyperion soldier she could. The first bandit to charge Moxxi met with a spray of incendiary bullets lighting him aflame. Moxxi did not pause at his screams and continued her way through the defenders.

The charging bandits started to explode all across the battlefield. Gyrojet rounds were streaking towards the bandits and they couldn't get out the way before, well BOOM! Torgue had made his presence on the battlefield known in his usually loud bombastic way. "Wooo! Yeaaah, time to get your butts kicked by some real bad asses!" Torgue was having the time of his life, he was getting back to basics killing bandits. He had been the spokesman for the Torgue company for so long that he hadn't gotten out to actually do anything badass. He used to kill bandits and wrestle monstrous creatures and do awesome things. All he wanted to do was hang out with the Vault Hunters, but for some reason they would always find some reason to not include him. This is finally his chance to be one of the team and it was doing what he was good at. TAKING DOWN SOME BANDIT #%$ YEAH!

The Deputy was slightly panicking. He didn't know what he was doing here, he just followed the rest of the group and started to fire on the bandits charging them. His large Jakobs shotgun was making quick work of anyone who came within it's range. These people were all a incredibly dangerous and a little insane. Deputy was just a regular guy trying to do right by the people of Lynchwood and keep them as safe as one can be on a world like Pandora. He didn't have any business in group with these veteran killers, he thought as the Psycho about to cleave his skull got the butt of his shotgun in the face followed by both barrels. He thought about how he could not measure up to those around him as he reloaded his weapon causing another group of bandits to take their chance and charge what they thought was a weak opponent, but they underestimated the speed a Jakobs shotgun could be reloaded. These bandits were quickly dispatched. He being a lawman and policing the streets of his home, not besieging entire armies of bandits.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Claptrap was not having a good time. He wasn't supposed to be out here fighting the bad guys, that's what he had minions for! On man this was bad, Claptrap was speeding back and forth trying to avoid the return fire from the bandits screaming and flailing his arms around. Oh man oh man what am I going to do these guys are going to kill me! The Bandits found Claptrap to be a difficult target to get a bead on as he was so small and moving around so erratically. Claptrap suddenly stopped fleeing as he realized he could kill people again. He digistructed a Dahl assault rifle into his hands and started to snap off bursts against the bandits trying to kill him. The bandits started to fall as Claptrap re-embraced his murderous tendencies and cleared the field of his enemies. Okay Claptrap was starting to get back into his Vault Hunter mindset, his protocols had been reactivated and his was no longer the joke. He was no longer a punching bag or someone's toilet, he was a bad ass, and he was going to show them all! Suddenly a rocket impacted with claptrap and he was on the ground unresponsive.

"Ugh someone go pick up Claptrap, he's gone down." Gaige was wasn't surprised that the first of the group to be downed was Claptrap, getting shot, or blown up, or whatever seemed to be what he was best at. Ah well he was doing okay before hopefully he would remember how to be a Vault Hunter quickly. The Deputy was the first one to reach their downed teammate.

"Hey what am I supposed to do here"

"Just pick him up so he can get back to taking these guys out."

"How would that help him he was hit by a rocket!"

"Oh I don't know then just hit him with a health vial."

"But he's a robot. Would that even do anything."

"I think so, I mean he got healed with vials in Athena's story."

"I ah okay..."

The Deputy knelt down to Claptrap and started to infect him with a health vial. After a few seconds it seemed to work and Claptrap was his fe...ah wheel.

"Ahh man I hate that. Getting downed hurts a lot."

"Hey Claptrap head in the game we still have bandits to take down!"

The Vault Hunters continued their way up the path deeper into the bandit base killing more helpless bandits as they went. They easily made their way past the beginning as the disorganized yellow clad bandits were weak and not in high numbers to truly pose a threat. As the group started into a new area they encountered real resistance. There were more enemies than before and they seemed to hit harder, depleting shields quickly causing the adventurers to be forced into cover. The group was now less bombastic and far more cautious in their approach. Taking a few shots before returning to covers and lobbing grenades from safety, doing everything they could to ensure that they would not be downed.

"You know I just thought of something."

"What!"

"These guys don't seem like what I was expecting from attacking a groups of Hyperion soldiers."

"What do mean?"

"Well I expected them to be more like what Hyperion was like when me and the other Vault Hunters fought them. You know with their uniform and armor and turrets and stealth suits and stuff. Except for some yellow here and there and a few Hyperion logos you couldn't tell these guys from any other Bandit clan"

"I guess they lost a bunch of stuff when the station fell. Maybe the soldiers went full Pandoran or these guys are just some local bandits the soldiers recruited as cannon fodder."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense. The enemies have gotten tougher the further in the stronghold we've gotten."

As they had been talking out of a nearby building four nomads came out marching to the front of the battlefield. The shields they were carrying looked like they had been pieces of metal ripped from the side of a Hyperion ship, yellow with a big H on the center. Diverging from their typical tactic these Nomads were marching is formation towards the the group. The Vault Hunters opened fire on the approaching shield wall but to no effect. There were no openings that would normally exist when random Nomads would come forward at different angles leaving sides or back vulnerable.

"AHHH PHALANAX ITS A PHALANAX!" Screamed Torgue.

"Okay this is more disciplined than I would normally give bandits credit for."

The other surviving bandits were not idle during this time and took advantage of the situation and formed up behind the mobile cover piling more fire onto the pinned down heroes. The group of Vault Hunters were forced to pull back a good distance to a previously cleared encampment while they let shields recharge and reupped their health.

"Okay we need to figure out a way around the, I can't believe I'm saying this, phalanx of Nomads or we're not going to be able to go any further."

"We can't hit them like we normally would. They're not showing their backs and with the rest of the bandits actually supporting them it's going to be difficult trying to get a line of sight on their weak spots"

"Well it might not be that difficult." Came from Gaige.

She brought be cybernetic prosthetic up and pushed some buttons and digistructed Deathtrap into being. He hovered there looking at his creator before she gave him a command. "Okay Deathtrap get over there and deal with the bandits." Deathtrap straightened up in attention them turned towards the bandits up the path and floated off with his claws crackling with electricity. The once confidant Nomad phalanx hesitated before the screams started.

"Oh yeah I forgot she had that thing."

"I guess we better get back up to the fighting and finish this group off."

The Vault Hunters ran back up the path towards the pained screams and reengaged the bandits the had barred their path. With the previously disciplined bandits broken and scattering in panic they Vault Hunters had no difficulty in mowing their opposition down. Once the last of the bandits had exploded into viscera the Vault Hunters decided to stop and rest as this fight had actually taken quite a bit out of them.

"Hey guys how bout we stop for a bit. I not really used to this kind of stuff and that last fight nearly did us in."

"The Deputy does have a point. We can't just keep going non stop. We should take some time to rest." Added Moxxi

"We should probably also come up with a plan before we continue forward. This encounter shows that some of the typical Vault Hunter tactics might not be the best way."

"YOU MEAN JUST F #&ING S#!% UP!"

"Yes, I mean that."

"Hah I hah could hah go hah for a break" came from Claptrap prone on the ground panting, which should have been impossible as he's a robot.

"Uhg fine. I think how Vault Hunters have always done things works, but if you guys want to take a break and think and plan then fine we'll do that."

The Vault Hunters set up a camp and got ready for the night. They had started a fire and laid out bedrolls, which of course they had in their digistruct backpacks, and prepared to rest. The coming morning the group would set out again to get to the heart of this bandit territory and hopefully find the information they need to recover Felicity. Those new to being Vault hunters have gotten a taste of the kind of challenges that they are now set to tackle and will have to rise up in order to overcome. For Gaige its just more of the same just now she's the leader and must make the tough choices. And Claptrap come on man this is the second time you've been a Vault Hunter, and before that you led a Robolution, suck it up, jeez. Anyway the Vault Hunters went to sleep for the night hoping they were prepared for what lay ahead.


End file.
